Explorations in film and comics

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Read in 2016

The deeper you immerse yourself into any subject, the more you discover you don’t know about that subject. I’ve been watching movies for most of my life and have occasionally picked up books about them, but such books were never a serious focus. During the past few years, I’ve been very aware that there’s so much about film that I don’t know. I’ve started reading more these past few years and this year I read several books on film. None of them were a waste of time and several of them were very good. I’d like to share with you my favorite books on movies I read in 2016 (although only a few of them were actually published in 2016).

This time of year you can count on holiday shopping madness, eating too much and a proliferation of “Best of the Year” lists. I try to limit myself on the first two items (usually without success with either) but go nuts with my “Best of” lists.

During the next few weeks, I’ll be posting sporadically with several “Best of” lists that I hope you’ll enjoy. My first list should be a Best Books on Movies list. These won’t be books to movies, but rather books about movies, some new, some old. (I also look forward to reading your “Best of” lists.) See you then…

As always, Gwen and I had a great time yesterday talking about two fantastic new comics for young readers, Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke (First Second) and Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier (GRAPHIX/Scholastic). You can listen to that discussion here. Enjoy!

Video Tonfa scratches two of my most dedicated itches: movies and comics. Goodyear, who has worked in the Pacific Northwest in comics, zines and video for many years, has created a unique product: a journal of movies he’s watched over the years – reviews and drawings of the original poster art or VHS/DVD box art. Reading the book is almost like looking at someone’s diary, but I suspect most diaries aren’t nearly this much fun.

Some of the best film noir movies are lean, no-nonsense productions that get you in and out usually in under 90 minutes. Death on the Cheap takes a similar approach, giving readers a quick but thorough history of film noir before tackling the rise and fall of B movies.